iWork '09: The Missing Manual

Your First Keynote Slideshow

As the head costume stylist for Up & Away, the leading outfitter for the superheroes of Megaville, you’ve been invited to speak to students at the Excelsior School for Heroic Design. The plan is to give an introductory talk on the nostalgic designs of classic superhero costumes and how to update them for the new millennium—from cape pros and cons to basic bulletproofing. To build your slideshow, you’ll turn to the newest tool in your utility belt, Keynote.

For this project, choose Gradient from the Theme Chooser—a simple theme for a look as bold, dramatic, and practical as your costumed clients. A new document window flies out at you, filled with the title slide for your presentation (Figure 12-2). You’re ready to explore your workspace and start designing your slides.

Tip

Although you haven’t done a thing yet, it’s a great idea to save the project right at the start. Choose File → Save (or ⌘-S), name your presentation, select a destination folder, and click Save. Then periodically press ⌘-S as you work to save your changes on your hard drive, protecting you from possible power outages, software glitches, or creative tantrums.

Familiar Faces: The Toolbar, Format Bar, and Inspectors

One of the things that makes using iWork so comfortable is that all its programs share a similar look and feel. The strong family resemblance between Keynote and its siblings starts with the controls in the document window; if you’ve been tinkering with Pages in the preceding chapters, ...